Obedience: The Odyssey to Freedom Essay

The word freedom is often associated with the idea of an unfettered liberty to select from a range of alternatives coupled with a sense that our actions will not affect our natural state.Catholic doctrine teaches that our choice is one of rational deliberation and voluntary subjugation to a higher force. This is natural law. Milton envisions the same teaching.

Unfortunately, human nature only lends itself to the assumption of certain abstract concepts such as `natural law’, an assumption Milton develops in Paradise Lost. Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton expands upon the teaching that human actions affect human freedom and that this is a consequence of the assumption of the natural law that the Creator owns the created. Moreover, the created freely subordinates itself to its Creator.

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Free subordination implies that a being must be free to choose between right and wrong and that it will freely chose according to the will of its Creator. Hence, a creature of the all-good Christian God must chose the good whereas a creature of Satan, id est all evil, must chose evil. This is apparent in the following event in Paradise Lost: Sin, a creation of Satan, chooses evil agreeing to unlock the gates of Hell for Satan, letting him pass, and telling him “Thou art my father, thou my author, thou/ My being gav’st me; whom should I obey/ But thee, whom follow?” (PL II 864-5).

By agreeing to let Satan pass and permitting evil into the world Sin is subordinating herself to her creator. Complications arise when the creation being dealt with is a rational and free creature such as one of the angels or humankind. In such a case, the creature is to deliberate what will glorify his Creator and act according to that deliberation. If the acti…

…428). When Eve chooses the contrary to God’s will she loses her innocence and original pleasant state, Adam follows suit and suffers equal consequences. This is humankind’s tragic loss, after that first fall there is no hope to obtain that first perfect union with God. In man’s current state union is only achieved through death, Milton says “I now must change/ Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach/ Disloyal on the part of man, revolt/ And disobedience.” (PL IX 5-8).

Man has sinned thereby tragically changing his nature. He can only love God through the challenges of this world and hope in god’s mercy. Humanity is destined to hopeful and lonesome waiting for that final hour when each person is judged: those that have obeyed will join God in perfect happiness; those that have disobeyed Him will join Satan and his followers in the fiery pits of Hell.

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